San Jose Sharks' success has roots in Worcester

BOSTON — The San Jose Sharks team that came swaggering into TD Garden with an NHL-leading 8-0-1 record on Thursday night actually got its start last season, according to forward Logan Couture.

Truth be told, the success story goes back even further — several years ago, in fact, to those Worcester Sharks teams that funneled so many talented players to their NHL parent.

"I think it started last year at trade deadline," Couture said on Tuesday during a stop at the Nativity School in Worcester, where he and teammates Matt Irwin and Tommy Wingels promoted a "Reading Is Cool" program for the pupils there.

"We changed some players with better mentality that wanted to play, and got quicker, played more of a north-south game, and it's been good since then."

The additions were veteran forward Raffi Torres, who is currently on the injured list with an ACL injury suffered in training camp, and Scott Hannan. But the new mentality has stuck as the Sharks — with no fewer than eight Worcester products on their roster — reeled off six straight victories to start the season. They lost in a shootout at Dallas, but came into Boston having won two in a row, including a 1-0 shootout victory at Detroit on Monday night in which Couture scored the winning goal.

As of Thursday, San Jose had scored the most goals (40) and had the best goal differential (+24) in the league.

It was the first time back in Worcester in some time for Couture, Irwin and Wingels. Couture played half a season at the DCU Center in 2011-12, getting 20 goals and 53 points in just 42 games. Wingels, also a forward, played 29 games that season in Worcester and 69 games the season before, accumulating 30 goals and 54 points in 99 games. Irwin, a defenseman, spent 2½ seasons with the AHL club before heading to San Jose to stay last season.

Couture came into the Bruins game tied for second in scoring on the Sharks with 4-7-11 totals in nine games. He said he learned a lot of his game playing in Worcester for coach Roy Sommer.

"It was good for me to learn the pro game," Couture said. "I was just fresh out of juniors, I was 20 years old, just trying to learn how to play pro and basically living on my own for the first time."

Couture roomed with goalie Alex Stalock and tough guy Nick Petrecki, who is still with the AHL club. He couldn't remember the street where they lived, but like a good minor league hockey player, he remembered it was "by Funky Murphy's," the Shrewsbury Street bar and eatery.

Irwin, who came from the unlikely hockey factory of UMass-Amherst, lived in Worcester with fellow UMass product Justin Braun — also now with San Jose — and James Marcou, who is now out of hockey.

"The memories (of Worcester) are good," Irwin said. "It's where I started my pro career and kind of learned what the pro lifestyle's all about. You have that dream of playing pro hockey, so this was the first step.

"I made a lot of great friends who were all in the same boat, trying to get to the NHL. You bond with those guys, and they're friends you'll have for a lifetime. A lot of us are up in San Jose now, so it's great to see San Jose's doing a great job of getting guys from Worcester developed and up into the NHL."

Wingels, a Miami of Ohio product who has 2-4-6 totals in nine games for San Jose, said "it's great coming back" to the city where he got his start.

"Being back in Worcester and seeing familiar buildings and the ice arena and the surroundings is pretty cool," he said. "It brings back pretty good memories."

San Jose has been led by 19-year-old rookie sensation Tomas Hertl, who has seven goals in nine games, including four in one game against the Rangers. Hertl has played on a line with ex-Bruin Joe Thornton (1-10-11) and Brent Burns (4-4-8), while Couture has been with Patrick Marleau (7-4-11) and Tyler Kennedy.

The Sharks started fast (6-0) last season, too, before cooling off. The question is whether they can keep it up this time.

"Last year was a lot different," Couture noted. "We scored a lot of our goals last year on the power play, really relied on that to get us through games. This year, we've got a lot more five-on-five scoring. A lot of players in our lineup this year are really contributing; last year it was more top-heavy in terms of scoring, so I think we can keep it going."